


dark lullabies

by lilybluee



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, i think, minhyuk and changkyun go to a nightclub, some fluff???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22326331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilybluee/pseuds/lilybluee
Summary: there’s a chance changkyun won’t regret his decision of leaving the house tonight.
Relationships: Im Changkyun | I.M/Lee Jooheon
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	dark lullabies

☾ ✦ ☽

There’s a chance Changkyun won’t regret his decision of leaving the house tonight.

That chance is currently standing to the far right close to the entrance, solo cup in hand, chatting enthusiastically with a beautiful big bodied man, his smile so sweet it could melt the heavens.

Changkyun can see his forehead is glistening with sweat, his body long and lean with hint of muscle, deep dimples denting his cheeks, black hair sucking all the light from the barely lit dance floor.

The beautiful man beside him whispers something in his ear, and he doubles over from laughter, his whole being quivering. Changkyun quivers along.

Minhyuk jabs him in the ribs. “You know, my dude, I think I have the perfect advice for you.” 

Changkyun turns his eyes back to the hands he has clutched tightly around his cup. His rings are starting to burn his knuckles. He dips one painted nail into his drink and sucks noisily on his finger. “Keep it, don’t want it.”

Minhyuk’s hot breath tickles his earlobe. “Enough with the eye fucking and proceed into the _actual_ fucking.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“What’s so hard about approaching a pretty guy in a gay club,” Minhyuk declares, pounding a fist on the counter and almost sending his drink toppling to the side. The bartender gives him a dirty look. “Shoot your shot, you’ve nothing to fear, it’s a fucking gay club, unclench your butthole a little, neh?”

“He already has a man,” Changkyun says with pouty lips. “And a gorgeous one at that.”

“Which one we’re talking about here?”

Changkyun lifts his jaw in the direction of his current obsession. The music is loud, reverberating from beneath the floor up to his gums. The heat is kind of suffocating, the dance floor slithering with masses of moving bodies. Yet Changkyun’s eyes always return to the same spot, to the same leather-clad legs and dimpled smile.

“Oh, Hoseokkie? You’re talking about Hoseokkie?”

“Hoseo-”

Minhyuk takes hold of Changkyun’s face and slams their cheeks together. Changkyun winces both at the pain and at the fact that Minhyuk is plainly pointing with his finger at strangers.

“What the fuck you’re doing?”

“The big guy is Hoseok,” Minhyuk says. “The universe’s biggest sweetheart, a heart made of gold and tears.” Minhyuk moves his finger to the right. “And the smaller one is Jooheon, or honey, or the universe’s sulkiest baby, and I think you’d suit each other fine.”

Changkyun’s heart might or might not have sprouted wings. “So what you’re saying is that he’s single?”

“Yes,” Minhyuk says and puts down his finger, but because the club is crowded and the lighting is dim, none of the two men have paid them attention.

Minhyuk raises his glass for a refill. “And before you ask, no, I don’t personally know them, but I did hang out with them in the past. They’re cool dudes.”

Even with the soaring wings and the ticklish guts, Changkyun can’t help the suspicion. “What makes you think they’re not courting each other, they seem...so close.”

“Oh,” Minhyuk exclaims after another gulp of his drink. He takes a moment to scrunch up his nose at the burn down his throat. “Well, Hoseokkie is already taken, has been for two years, I believe. You might be familiar with Hyunwoo.”

Changkyun’s eyes widen. “Hyunwoo, as in, Hyunwoo hyung himself?”

“How many are out there? Would like to acquire one for myself,”

“Not that many, unfortunately,” Changkyun says.

“Right.” Minhyuk sighs. “Anyways, Hoseokkie hyung is off-limits, don’t touch him, don’t sniff him, don’t even think of him, because Hyunwoo will know somehow, and you’ll come to regret your existence.”

Changkyun laughs and lets out an ugly snort. “No worries there, honey has my dick and heart.”

“Your heart and dick,” Minhyuk rectifies.

“Same thing, order has no relevance.”

Minhyuk looks thoughtful for a minute. His neck is flushed with dots of sweat leaning against his exposed clavicles, dagger necklace twirled and plastered to his back. Changkyun can’t remember the number of hopeless fouls making futile advances on him on this lovely night, the rejection too scorching, too humiliating for their lot.

At last, he gets jerked to his feet, and it takes him a moment to stabilize his wobbly body against the counter. Minhyuk holds his hand and guides him through the dance floor.

“Minhyukkie, I don’t think this is a good idea,” he calls weakly, but his voice gets drowned and swallowed by the loud sugary music. A hand finds itself on his hip. Another clutches his waist. Changkyun squirms and tries not to collapse from the rush of adrenaline and alcohol. “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“What?” Minhyuk yells over the crowd.

“I don’t want to die!” Changkyun bellows.

“No one is dying! I asked you to loosen up your asshole, didn’t I?”

Someone gets a little daring and grabs Changkyun forcefully by the arms, pressing him to their chest and absolutely going at his neck. He feels the pressure on his jugular from moist lips, nipping his skin and sucking like a stinging hornet, and Changkyun absolutely shudders from disgust.

“Get off!” He yells and shoves the stranger aside, who merely turns to their next victim of a hundred kilos and arms of steel, a lump of beef in the center of the floor. Changkyun ignores the punching and groaning that ensues.

“Minhyuk for fuck’s sake!”

Forever takes a while, and finally Honey hyung emerges (he’s older, Minhyuk has informed him so in hopes he’ll mind his manners for once), shrouded in a black lace top and black leather pants, and oh his lord, he is going to faint.

“Honey, my honey, hello hello,” Minhyuk greets Jooheon joyfully (too joyful maybe, too enthusiastic, going for an ass squeeze), and burns Hoseok’s cheek with a passionate kiss. “Babe, you’re squishy as a plushie, or maybe as pizza dough.”

Hoseok lets out a gorgeous laugh, “It’s good to see you, Minhyuk.” He guides his attention then to Changkyun and halts suddenly like a heavily loaded truck in the highway. Maybe it’s the glare from the overhead lights, or maybe it’s a sudden rush of alcohol that Changkyun is all too familiar with, but Hoseok’s eyes light up and his smile changes subtly. Changkyun feels naked and exposed, his ribs cleaved through and innards about to tumble out.

“Changkyun, meet Hoseokkie hyung and honey honey.”

“My name’s Jooheon.”

“Changkyun, meet Hoseokkie hyung and Jooheon honey. He doesn’t sting like a bumblebee but he does work hard like one. Please, make sure to cherish him, don’t let him sulk.”

Jooheon sighs. “Hyung, for the love of fuck.”

He might have only spoken a handful of words, but Changkyun is ready to get to his knees and worship the stones this man walks on. He’s not sure what sacrifices are needed to have him narrate his days and nights and afterlife, because Changkyun refuses to be reduced to nothingness once he hits the grave.

Hoseok gives him a gentle hug, and the man smells like he’s made of flowers, perfuming air in the mist, as if his diet consists of one rose petal in the morning, one tiny alyssum in the afternoon, and a bucket of wisteria at dawn. 

“Hey, Changkyunnie, can I call you Changkyunnie?” Hoseok asks.

Changkyun nods dumbly. “Yes, yes of course. Minhyukkie calls me worse.”

Hoseok laughs again and. Wow. Nature at its finest. What a beautifully crafted man.

Jooheon is looking at him. Jooheon is looking at him, and Chankgyun contemplates going for a handshake, or a hug, or a love confession, or maybe a dive through the nearest fucking window.

He smiles though. Jooheon, that is, and makes the decision for him in the form of a side hug, which is more like a bro hug, the broest hug that has graced earth, if Changkyun is to be brutally honest with himself. He passes a hand over his forehead and finds himself sweating, heart ticking away like a time bomb. He can hear it in his ears. Changkyun doesn’t wish to combust, but he does wish to vanish so he could start the process of mourning his dignity.

In his frizzled state, he doesn’t notice how red Jooheon gets, or the absolute look of disdain that Hoseok sends Jooheon which plainly says; _you’re a fool, a bloody brute is what you are. _

“Uhh,” Minhyuk croaks from behind. “Drinks everyone? I feel like passing out on the street.”

Minhyuk doesn’t pass out on the street, but he does puke in a garbage bin outside the club under the spread of the night’s gowns, pinpricks of stars and some light wind cooling the sweat on his temples.

“Are you okay?” Hoseok asks, concerned, staying true to his sweetheart title. He rubs gently Minhyuk’s back.

“What are you talking about? My dear, dear Hoseokkie, I’m doing-” He cuts himself off and retches so violently, the moon winces.

Changkyun understands, sympathizes even, he’s not a stranger to this same exact scenario, but emetophobia is a cruel bitch and just the sound is making him want to heave. He walks away and finds a spot on the curb near Jooheon. He respects Jooheon’s personal space by sitting almost two meters away.

“Jesus,” he mutters. “Should’ve have knocked that last bottle out of his hand.”

Jooheon under the soft glow of the streetlight is different to the Jooheon throwing back beer to see how many he could chug. His skin has a soft and plumpish quality to it, puberty not completely razing off the baby fat in his cheeks. His lips are literally in the shape of a heart, a healthy flush to them that matches the redness of his neck and chest. His lace top has, at some point in their chaotically held fiesta, unraveled near the throat, letting the bee-looking tattoos along his collarbones have a peek to the stuffy nightclub air. Changkyun almost fainted when he saw them the first time.

“You don’t have to be so guarded around me,” Jooheon ends up finally saying. Without looking at Changkyun, he pats the space beside him.

Changkyun gets the cue, and his heart swells ten times its size. He drags his ass across the harsh curb and eliminates the distance between them. They sit close enough their knees are almost touching. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.” 

Jooheon gives him a very bewildered look. “Uncomfortable? Why would you make me feel uncomfortable?”

“Well, not everyone likes to have their personal space invaded,” Changkyun says. He fiddles with his rings and concentrates on not chipping his nail polish with his eager teeth. Minhyuk continues retching.

“Funny you’d say that when I’m a total opposite and I crave human touch like ice cream after midnight.” 

Changkyun laughs in a sudden burst and covers his mouth with both hands.

“It’s true,” Jooheon continues. “I cuddle the hell out of my roommate and slip in his bed at night. He keeps kicking me out but I’m a parasite.”

“You two together?”

“It’s platonic love.” Jooheon pauses to swat at the mosquito buzzing near his ear. “He’s straight.”

“Oh.” Changkyun shouldn’t be this relieved, but fuck it, he’ll allow himself this tiny victory.

They sit close together for a while, watching drunken guys making out and swapping glitter on the sidewalk. Juxtaposing the beautiful scene is a worn out looking Minhyuk on his knees chatting miserably with a very patient Hoseok.

Changkyun hugs his legs and rests his chin on his arms. He peers up at Jooheon and smiles, looking bashful. “So, you touch starved?”

“What’s that?” Jooheon asks, but somehow the redness in his cheeks intensifies, a flower in bloom, chocolate cosmos.

Changkyun waves a hand. “You know, some hunger for skin contact, a hug here, a kiss there, the usual shit.”

Jooheon’s smile is a feast for the eyes, truly, and Changkyun is trembling with the effort not to bury a finger in his dimples.

“Actually, I’m really into hand holding,” Jooheon says. “I fuck with that. Feels good, feels organic.”

“Oh yeah, what if the hand you’re holding is clammy.”

Jooheon shrugs. “It’s okay, I don’t discriminate.”

“Oh thank god, my hand might just be the sweatiest thing you’ll ever hold-”

“Honey, Changkyunnie, let’s get moving,” Hoseok yells into the night. “It’s two in the morning.”

Right. He forgot. They’re not here alone, which a tragedy, a whole ass massacre because Changkyun was just about to shoot his infamous shot.

Minhyuk finally fulfills his wish of passing out on the street, more specifically on Hoseok’s back, his face buried in Hoseok’s neck and arms swaying like a marionette lacking its strings. It’s sad to see, but Minhyuk is an idiot and chugging vodka isn’t always the way into his crush’s pants, they’ve talked about this.

“Hyung, let me carry him for you before he starts drooling on your shoulder,” Changkyun says.

Hoseok shakes his head, soft fluffy hair swinging with the motion. “I’m good, he weighs like, nothing, thank you Kyunnie.”

And honestly, he’s really good, not a hint of struggle on his face, muscles relaxed, as if carrying a dead drunk Minhyuk in the wee hours of the morning is something of a routine.

“You hold your liquor well,” Jooheon whispers in his ear, stepping back at the last second. If Changkyun could concentrate long enough he’d spot millions of tiny stars twinkling in Jooheon’s irises. What a fucking fairy. Changkyun is ready to be whisked away to his doom.

“You’re doing better,” he says, “I keep stumbling on my own two feet, see.” And this time, he deliberately lets himself fall and catches his balance by holding onto Jooheon’s bicep, his fingers lingering a second long.

Jooheon giggles. “You smooth fuck.”

“I fail to recognize what you’re talking about.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve actually always known about you.”

It gets so silent all of a sudden, the world holding its breath in anticipation of this strange progression. “Oh,” Changkyun manages to wheeze out with every cell of his being lighting itself on fire.

He’s oblivious to this, but Jooheon is currently sweating buckets underneath his lace top, “I promise I’m not a stalker.”

“No, no, that’s not what I-”

“Im Changkyun, second year, chemistry major because he likes to burn things down, roommates with Lee Minhyuk, something of a nerd.”

“Okay, I’m starting to get my doubts here.”

“You’re practically a toddler around Hyunwoo hyung, always biting his ankle while sucking on your thumb.” He shrugs, and it’s kind of nonchalant, but the strong redness in his cheeks is treacherous and Chankgyun has half a mind to touch it with his hand to see if some red dust would come off.

“Hyunwoo hyung is like, my daddy,” Changkyun says and sniffs against this awful slap of cold breeze. “He gave birth to me and forgot about me in the nursery room, and now I’m just claiming what he owes.”

“You’re really handsome Changkyunnie, that’s a thing I’ve always thought about.”

Changkyun’s heart sinks and lurches and almost cracks his ribs. There’s screaming going on in his head, but plowing his skull into the nearest wall probably won’t help him simmer down, so he sucks it up and urges his foggy brain to concentrate, this is going down in history.

“Oh yeah, explains why you never approached me.”

“I’m a socially inept hermit, okay? I speak two words and the earth splits in half. I try to make friends and Zeus strikes me with a thunderbolt. I wouldn’t have survived talking to you.” 

Fuck it, Changkyun is going to _marry_ this man and he’s going to hold the greatest ceremony any mortal will ever get to witness and he’ll cry tears of gold with a fairy as a partner for life and they’ll establish their Republic in the clouds.

But first.

But first, he hops forward on wobbly legs, and takes Jooheon’s hand.

“Your hand is really clammy,” Jooheon says and squeezes his fingers.

“Hoseok, babe, what in the hell?”

“He passed out, be kind, Hyunwoo.”

It turned out Hyunwoo had been waiting for them to come home this whole time by Minhyuk and Changkyun’s apartment’s door, polka-dotted pyjama pants and fluffed up hair and a light frown that has no business being there on the big man’s forehead. Also, he’s wearing a t-shirt, yet by some divinity’s grace there’s not a trace of gooseflesh on his arms.

He doesn’t hesitate to rid Hoseok of the big lump on his back, holding a snoring, drooling Minhyuk bridal style and waiting patiently for Changkyun to fit the keys into the lock which could be significantly easier to accomplish if he would just let go of Jooheon’s hand for _two seconds_.

As it is, Jooheon has no more patience for him, and he extracts himself from Changkyun’s bone crushing fist and takes hold of the keys, opening the door at last.

Since Hyunwoo is no stranger to their household’s setting, having visited one too many times in the past to help out with Minhyuk’s biology homework, he finds his path fairly easy and beelines for Minhyuk’s bedroom, a tired Hoseok following behind, dress shirt streaked with suspicious looking lines of drool.

“You know, my mom called this evening and asked me about you,” Hyunwoo says. “She says she’d love to meet you in a formal family dinner next Friday.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my, _my GOD_.”

“Hoseokkie, calm down.”

“Jesus, Hyunwoo, I’ll die before I mess this up-”

Their voices grow faint as they close the door to Minhyuk’s bedroom. Changkyun’s confidence has already bled from his lungs, leaving him pale and terrified and sober. He’s kind of trembling still from the lingering embrace of the cold, his protruding collarbones aching because he thought it’d be hot to have them exposed back in the club.

Jooheon is looking at him.

“Uhh,” He is a dumbass, “I hope what happened less than ten minutes ago wasn’t a fever dream, ‘cause I don’t think I would survive otherwise.”

Honey smiles wide, as in so wide some ghostly choir starts playing in the vicinity leaving Changkyun ensorcelled, so when Jooheon, who has probably sucked that bleeding confidence from him like a typical-cruel-but-sexy vampire, slips an arm around his waist and holds his cheek with a gentle palm and kisses him, he stands frozen as a statue and doesn’t dare heave a breath. 

Jooheon slaps gently his cheek. “Changkyunnie, you’re making me believe I’m making out with a piece of marble.”

Heat rushes to Changkyun’s head when he notices the furious blush in Jooheon’s cheeks and the trembling hand that is still cupping his jaw.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Changkyun stammers, “You’re gorgeous and you’re kissing me and I forgot how to function for a second, I’m really sorry, am I allowed a second chance?”

Jooheon feigns annoyance, but when Changkyun kisses his dimpled cheeks then the corners of his lips, he melts like the actual raw honey. “I mean, sure, but after you treat me to some tea.”

“Eh, it’s three in the morning.”

“Fine, no kisses.”

“No wait, black tea or green tea?”

**Author's Note:**

> hey ♡ thank you so much for reading


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